One in five patients admitted to hospital in England in November last year had to wait in a corridor, with 1% waiting in a storage cupboard, according to a national survey.
The report by the Care Quality Commission also found that nearly 10% of patients waited more than 24 hours to be admitted to hospital and 17.5% waited 12 to 24 hours. In all, more than half of all patients waited more than six hours to be admitted.
While nearly half waited in a treatment bay, 18% had to wait in a corridor, 31% in a waiting room and 361 patients (1%) said they had to wait in a storage room or cupboard.
The CQC’s annual survey of more than 62,000 adults’ experiences of staying in hospital found that more people waiting for planned care were reporting that their health worsened while waiting. About four in 10 (43%) said their health deteriorated while waiting to be admitted, with a quarter (25.5%) saying it got “a bit worse” and nearly a fifth (17.7%) saying their health got “much worse”, up from 24% and 175 in 2023 respectively.
Dr Toli Onon, CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said it was “great to see” improvements since the previous year in the availability of staff and numbers of patients getting help when they needed it.
But “worrying” reports of lengthy waits and the proportion of patients whose health had deteriorated while waiting for elective care was a “real concern”, she said.
“Patients should receive safe and effective care in an environment that allows for their privacy and dignity to be protected. ‘Corridor care’ must not become normalised – however, these survey results demonstrate that in some cases the short-term use of temporary escalation spaces to relieve pressure on the ambulance sector is a regrettable reality.”
The CQC’s survey also found:
Only a fifth (20%) of those who had to change wards during the night were given a clear and understandable explanation for the reason.
Fewer than half (47.5%) of respondents felt they “definitely” got enough support from health or social care services to help them manage their condition after leaving hospital, and 23.1% said they did not receive enough support.
The proportion who said there were always enough nurses on duty improved from 55.7% in 2023 to 57.9% in 2024.
Nearly two-thirds (64.5%) of patients in 2024 said they were “always” able to get a member of staff to help them when they needed attention, up from 63.1% in the 2023 survey.
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “After over a decade of neglect, we are starting to get the NHS back on its feet with much needed reform and £26bn investment …
“We’re working hard to cut waiting lists – with 4.9 million extra appointments already delivered – mend the front door to the NHS to improve GP access, and deliver a seismic shift in care from hospital to community through our 10-year health plan.”